Yuli Tamir, Israel’s Education Minister, gets it. She and her staff have taken a tiny step towards a goal that has never been a priority for either Israel or the Palestinian Authority/PLO: acknowledging that there are two very different narratives at work here, two different ways of looking at the same set of events. Those […]
Israel
Postscript on the JNF law: A matter of official Israeli policy, not private whim
Ken Bob, President of Ameinu, is a self-taught expert on the morass of official and semi-official Israeli institutions. For that alone, he deserves a medal. In an email, he cleared up an issue raised in the previous comment thread by “Chris,” who insisted that the JNF is a “private organization:” [The term] “JNF” causes some […]
Time to throw out the little blue JNF box?
My new friend Jerry Haber, “The Magnes Zionist” tipped me off to a shameful story about the Jewish National Fund and proposed Knesset legislation. Here is the Ha’aretz report: Bill allocating JNF land to Jews only passes preliminary reading By Yoav Stern and Shahar Ilan The Knesset plenum approved a bill Wednesday, in its preliminary […]
The Magnes Zionist on “moral” vs. “immoral” Zionism
I have found a rare commodity: a kindred spirit in the blogosphere. “Jerry Haber” is the nom de plume of an Israeli professor whose provocative blog, “The Magnes Zionist,” wrestles bravely with the same issues I am trying to address. Both of us were recently plugged by Mobius in his indispensable “JewSchool.” Judah Magnes, as […]
New Senate resolution: will “one-staters” sit on their hands?
There is a good chance that there is no hope. It may well be impossible to unravel the Gordian knot of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But there will certainly be no hope unless the U.S. gets more actively engaged and takes a more balanced approach. That is a no-brainer, isn’t it? Americans for Peace Now, Churches […]
Checkpoints, the wall and an unexpected message
I think of Hannah often these days, now that I have begun to wade into the difficult task of conversing with the left on Israel. She is from Australia, in her late 50s, and has lived in Israel since the early ’70s. Hannah (not her real name) is one of the brave, tireless, often rather […]
My speech on candor, Israel, and the rhetoric of the far left
By now, readers of this blog know that I was part of a panel discussion on “How To Talk Candidly About Israel” at the Steven Wise Free Synagogue in New York City, June 21st, 2007. I was on a panel with Anne Roiphe and the Philip Weiss. The moderator was JJ Goldberg. I have posted […]
Jerusalem dispatch: A sliver of hope for the Arab League peace plan?
People on the Americans for Peace Now Board are in Israel. Ori Nir, their spokesperson, is sending interesting dispatches, some of which appear on their web site: www.peacenow.org. Below is a dispatch that gets into some of the nuances of the policies being considered in Israel in light of the recent disaster in the Gaza […]
So where were American Jews as Gaza collapsed?
In light of recent events, it is heartbreaking to recall both the hope that was generated when Abbas initially took over the Palestinian Authority and the role of the U.S. government –abetted by AIPAC– in dashing that hope.
Are Jews not supposed to talk to other Jews about the Israel lobby?
Concerns have been raised on this blog and others –and in private communications to me– about the panel discussion I’m participating in: “How to Talk Candidly About Israel — A Conversation Among Progressive Jews.” As noted on the previous post, Philip Weiss, Anne Roiphe and JJ Goldberg will be joining me on June 21st at […]